Chris Mccandless

Words: 865
Pages: 4

Veronica Wimsatt Mrs. English English 12: College Prep 17 April 2024 Into the Wild’s Story and Impact “The core of man’s spirit comes from new experiences.” (John Krakauer Into the Wild) With increasing pressure to live a life his parents chose for him; new experiences, a different life, Chris McCandless sought out to find who he was, without influence. To understand the impact that transcendentalism had on Chris McCandless’ journey, I must first explain what transcendentalism is. Transcendentalism noun (an idealistic philosophical and social movement which developed in New England around 1836 in reaction to rationalism. Influenced by romanticism, Platonism, and Kantian philosophy, it taught that divinity pervades all nature and humanity, and …show more content…
Chris is judged for abandoning his family and going off into the wilderness, just to end up losing his life. Is Chris a hero or a fool? Hersh Seidgul notes that life is precious and Chris took that for granted, he had many great opportunities such as being from a family with money and graduating from a prominent university. In this forum submission, the author believes McCandless gave up on society which is not a true reality, proving Chris is a bad influence and a foolish man. Seidgul notes the quote that I started this essay off with, “The core of man’s spirit comes from experience.” His opinions follow as Chris did not search for experiences within the life he had with his family. He should not have searched for happiness and individuality somewhere else before searching for it where he was. Seidgul writes that McCandless would have found happiness by finding a job and improving his skills over the years. Many times through the forum entry, he calls Chris a “fool” for not looking at his life as a whole, only looking at the details he did not care about. Seidgul believes that Chris was irrational for not looking at the good things in his